On the first day of Christmas our IT gave to me, my very own vir'tual machine-er-y (how cool is that?!).

On the second day of Christmas our IT gave to me, too many cloudy choices (which do I use?) and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the third day of Christmas our IT gave to me, a passel of pad devices (gotta have the iPad), too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the fourth day of Christmas our IT gave to me, four system logons (what, no root?) , a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the fifth day of Christmas our IT gave to me, FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! (I had tuna for lunch! w00t!). Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the sixth day of Christmas our IT gave to me, six weeks of training (where's the "any" key again?), FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the seventh day of Christmas our IT gave to me, big ol' NAS for storin' (now I've got somewhere to put all my saved LOLcat pics!), six weeks of training , FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the eighth day of Christmas our IT gave to me, eight system upgrades (what d'ya mean, we don't support XP any more?!), big ol' NAS for storin', six weeks of training , FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the ninth day of Christmas our IT gave to me, nine coders coding (come on! How hard can it be to make the stupid ERP system work?!), eight system upgrades, big ol' NAS for storin', six weeks of training, FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the 10th day of Christmas our IT gave to me, 10 techs debuggin' (are we still trying to get the ERP system to work?), nine coders coding, eight system upgrades, big ol' NAS for storin', six weeks of training, FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the 11th day of Christmas our IT gave to me, 11 hours of Muzak on hold (on hold waiting for tech support), 10 techs debuggin', nine coders coding, eight system upgrades, big ol' NAS for storin', six weeks of training, FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

On the 12th day of Christmas our IT gave to me, 12 days of anger (it shouldn't be this hard!), 11 hours of Muzak, 10 techs debuggin', nine coders coding, eight system upgrades, big ol' NAS for storin', six weeks of training, FIVE ... SOCIAL ... APPS! Four system logons, a passel of pad devices, too many cloudy choices, and my very own vir'tual machine-er-y.

Mark Gibbs is an author, journalist, and man of mystery. His writing for Network World is widely considered to be vastly underpaid. For more than 30 years, Gibbs has advised on and developed product and service marketing for many businesses and he has consulted, lectured, and authored numerous articles and books about networking, information technology, and the social and political issues surrounding them. His complete bio can be found at http://gibbs.com/mgbio. [mg]